Italian startup Centauroos greens the construction Industry
Using 3D printing and building rubble to create products with reduced emissions
By Laura Zamboni
(Laura Zamboni is a climate risk consultant and former scientist. She provides strategic advice to companies and investors, and writes about a variety of climate and sustainability topics, including promising technologies and solutions.)
OSIMO, ITALY (Callaway Climate Insights) — Picture attending the Milan Design Week or scouring the displays at the Venice Biennale and stumbling upon a piece that embodies an innovative solution in a hard-to-decarbonize sector, such as the cement industry. Hard to imagine?
But this is exactly what the three co-founders of the Italian startup Centauroos, architects Marco Galasso, Giovanni Marinelli, and Roberto Cognoli, have brought to these events.
They apply their technical background to recycle construction and demolition waste, reducing the amount of cement necessary to produce their product: small 3D-printed concrete building components. Additionally, as architects, they enhance their offerings with aesthetically appealing and functional urban design arrangements.
Hard to decarbonize, hard to dispose
Production of cement, which is a key component in making concrete, is notoriously difficult to decarbonize. Besides the energy-intensive heating of raw materials, specifically limestone, which accounts for 30% of total emissions, the larger problem lies in the transformation of limestone into cement, which emits CO₂ as a byproduct. The latter contributes the most considerable amount, accounting for 60% of total emissions.
Given that concrete is the most widely used material on the planet — second only to water but surpassing food — it is not surprising that emissions from cement production alone account for 8% of the global total of emissions.
Fortunately, there are significant and diverse efforts currently underway to decarbonize the industry. Among these, carbon capture and storage projects, such as those by Heidelberg Materials in Norway, have received the most attention. These essentially capture and store CO₂ from exhaust gases.
The technology is nascent, and existing projects are a small set of pilots that require substantial government subsidies, such as those provided by the EU Emissions Trading System, to become cost-effective.
Although they are receiving the most significant capital investment, this accounts for less than 10% of the pace required to meet decarbonization targets.
Currently, the most mature solutions for decarbonizing the cement industry focus on two strategies: increasing energy efficiency and diluting cement mixtures (known as clinker) with alternative materials, such as those used by Centauroos. The difference among existing products and pilots lies in those alternative materials.
The approach helps prevent CO₂ emissions that would otherwise be produced by manufacturing the cement from scratch. It is effective in reducing emissions today and plays a crucial role in the transition, while other effective methods are still being tested and developed.
Centauroos, specifically, recycles rubble to create concrete. Not only is this using the rubble, it also solves the problem of disposing of construction waste or disaster debris.
In Europe, construction and demolition waste accounts for over one-third of the total waste generated annually, totaling 510 million tons. The processing of this waste costs €45 billion each year. The concrete waste usually ends up in landfills or is incinerated.
Identifying suitable sites has even hindered rebuilding efforts after earthquakes, which can generate a significant volume of waste in a matter of hours. Centauroos recovers these valuable materials, thereby reducing the land devoted to waste and mitigating the associated health and environmental risks.
Centauroos’ process is far more complex than merely grinding and mixing rubble. It is rooted in the technological expertise of the three founders — young Italians who were inspired by a devastating earthquake that struck their homeland in 2016.
From university labs to garage experiments
After the earthquake that hit the Marche region in Italy in 2016, Galasso and Cognoli met at a scientific conference held at the Università di Camerino, where they shared their interest in reusing local materials for rebuilding efforts in the area. Soon after, they began brainstorming how their experience in 3D printing, robotics, and computational methods could contribute to this purpose, along with Marinelli, an expert in urban regeneration who had previously worked with Galasso at the Università Politecnica delle Marche.
Together, they secured an initial government grant, which enabled them to purchase a 3D printer and overcome their first technological hurdle. Their custom 3D printer can incorporate the coarse particles that usually result from grinding demolition waste, a feature that standard 3D printing technologies cannot accommodate.
In 2020, Centauroos began experimenting with the amount of rubble to include in its concrete, examining its hardening properties, water content, and the solidity of its building components created through 3D-printing — an endeavor that started in the founders’ garage, where many of the best innovation stories have begun.
Currently, Centauroos sells small building components that can be easily customized in terms of shapes and colors. Its clients are urban design studios and local municipalities, which assemble Centauroos’ blocks creatively to blend functionality with aesthetics.
“What sets us apart from our competitors is our ability to offer products that are not only durable — like concrete — but can also be custom-made to meet our clients’ specific needs. More importantly, we are committed to sustainability through our unique capability to source local demolition waste, which becomes a key ingredient in our final product,” Galasso said.
Optimized construction industry
Centauroos is broadening its vision within the construction industry, bolstered by financial support and connections provided by Panichi srl, an Italian construction company that has become Centauroos’ angel investor and board member since 2023.
Potential competitors to Centauroos may include Sonoma County Resource Recovery, Binn Group, and The Hills Group, according to TechCrunch.
With an established facility and headquarters in Ascoli Piceno, Italy, and a team of six with expertise in materials and product design, Centauroos has expedited experimentation on block shapes, colors, textures, and other structural characteristics required in construction.
Centauroos’ architectural legacy pays attention to the aesthetics, appearance, and cultural value of its work. The inspiration lies in incorporating rubble from destroyed buildings of its region into new materials, symbolically giving these remnants a second life.
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Apparently so, according to Tech Crunch.
Sonoma County Resource Recovery is in Windsor, Ontario, Canada? Not Windsor, Sonoma County, California?